Chapel Hill, North Carolina – June 27, 2024 – The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) is thrilled to announce a new research collaboration with DiaGen AI Inc., an AI-driven protein design platform developing new biological molecules to reshape the health market. 

This collaboration, based at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, aims to develop DiaGen’s AI generated library of designed peptides to validate selective KRAS binders capable of inducing degradation of cancer-causing mutant *KRAS-G12D, thereby impeding oncogenic signaling and offering a potential novel therapeutic strategy for KRAS-driven cancers. 

Dr. Alison Axtman, Assistant Professor at UNC and Principal Investigator of SGC-UNC will be leading the effort. “Given the significant role that KRAS plays in cancer propagation, we look forward to working with DiaGen on this project and will provide updates on our progress through joint publications, enabling the scientific community to benefit from our discoveries”, Dr. Axtman explains.

“As DiaGen continues to evolve its AI Engine and diversify into a pipeline approach addressing multiple verticals, this collaboration with SGC-UNC will allow our team to further develop our therapeutic vertical accelerating future peptide discovery and validation using AI the results of which should offer a promising strategy to overcome the longstanding challenges associated with direct inhibition of cancer-causing KRAS mutants,” commented Brian Keane, DiaGen’s CEO. 

About the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC)

The Structural Genomics Consortium is a global public-private partnership that seeks to accelerate drug discovery by fostering collaboration among a large network of scientists in academia and industry and making all research outputs openly available to the scientific community. The current SGC research sites are located at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Karolinska Institute, McGill University, University College, London, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, the University of Toronto and Unicamp.

For more information, contact Sofia Melliou: communications@thesgc.org

For more information on DiaGen Ai Inc., please visit www.diagen.ai or contact Brian D. Keane, Chairman and CEO: ir@diagen.ai